Home Work
RachelLately I've been obsessed with redecorating our apartment.
We've been in this one for almost 4 years (pinch me, please), and much of our furnishings came with us from our last apartment. This is a photo from a few years ago, where our dining/living room area looks downright sparse, compared to now, which is overrun with Penelope things. In fact our entire media unit became consumed with her toys (though that was also recently updated):
Our last place was our first home and so we made so many purchases without really thinking them through for the long term. Not that I have regrets, but do I wish I could tell my 25 year old self to purchase a black, brown or navy couch, rather than dark mossy green...? Yes, yes I do. But you live and you learn, right?
It also doesn't help matters that I am the most indecisive person EVER when it comes to decorating, updating and redoing anything in my home. I'm so fearful of making the wrong decision that I end up making zero decisions. Which is why my living room and bedroom walls remain barren after almost 4 years. The only space that's gotten some wall love? Our entryway:
Our place isn't big by house standards, but for an apartment it's not too shabby. We own our loft-style apartment in Jersey City and thus I'm a little more comfy making edits to it. Clocking in around 1,000 square feet, our home has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, some significant closet space (for apartment living), and a nice sized terrace to boot. It also has soaring 14 foot ceilings, which makes it all feel bigger too.
With that in mind, are we bursting at the seams with two full grown adults and a precocious toddler up in there?
Kind of.
But I love our place and am determined to stay there for as long as we can make it work.
Recently, I've been on a rampage to update it all, both aesthetically and functionally. Things just aren't the same with an almost 15-month-old in tow. Now, I'm all about utilizing every square inch of space we have and to look good doing it.
I keep a running list of everything I want to do, room by room. I've had this list for about two years before I finally decided to start tackling it. And so, if you're interested, I'll take you on our journey of home updates. After all, don't you want to see how far we've come since these mismatching bedroom days?
I'll give you a hint. It's significantly more awesome - and matching - now.
I'll also leave you with some fun go-to blogs that have me inspired daily by their design and organizing prowess!
Where do you go for home improvement inspiration?
Are you tackling any home projects lately?
Reader Comments (3)
My current mindset is all about home décor and renovations. I have HGTV on 24/7! I also love YoungHouseLove and IHeartOrganizing and hope to one day own houses that grand! We are trying to purchase a house right now and YoungHouseLove gives me hope that we can reno everything but it's scary to think about knocking out walls and redoing a whole kitchen...and the cost of all this...whew! Don't even get me started. If I could make our little condo work forever I would.
HGTV cost me thousands of dollars. Hey that looks nice let's try that - oh wait - now that looks shabby because of what I just did - OK I'll do just that - and so it goes.
We're starting to look for new apartments so haven't done anything major, but I really want new living room couch + coffee table. We know what we want, just need to pull the trigger! One simple thing we did was switch out the dining room light (the one that came with our apartment was HORRIBLE) and it was an easy/cheap fix that changes the way the room feels. I was so happy we did it!